Snake.Doctor
Member
Hi all,
We discussed about a thread about gun laws in the different countries represented by the members here, so I think we could start here. I will make a presentation about the laws in Switzerland, and after that you can add your local laws as well.
So first of all, a little History part about gun laws in Switzerland :
Switzerland is divided into 26 "states", it is a confederation, the those states joined it during the History. That's why it takes us some time when we need to make a decision which concerns everybody : there are states which speaks German, others French, Italian, and Romanche. More than the languages, the mentality is quite different from a place to an other.
So, before 1999, each state was making its own "cooking" : there was no federal law about weapons, each states was making its own. That means, depending the state you were living in, you could buy full-auto weapons, silencers, lasers, grenade launchers, etc... without problem. Same thing about semi-auto weapons, depending the state you needed a permit or not.
Then in 1999 it became a federal law with the following :
- To buy a weapon, you must be over 18 and had no criminal record. That was for semi-auto weapons. You asked the police dept for a buy-permit, and they made it for 50$ ( you could buy 3 weapons at the same time, at the same place with one permit ).
- For full-auto weapons, silencers and lasers you needed a "special buy-permit" which was obtained quite easily, depending on the police chief you were talking to. It was more easy at the beginning that in the end when the new law was coming, they became more restrictive on those special permits. Strange stuff, some weapons such as grenade launchers were defined as "a weapon with a single bore that must be reloaded one cartridge at a time" so it was free to buy without permit...
- You could also buy weapons from other civilians. You didn't need a permit from the police for that. The seller just needed to be sure you could legally own a weapon ( over 18, citizen, no criminal records, or foreigner with a live-in-the-country permit ). Then you just made a selling contract between you and the seller, and you could go home with your gun. This contract needed to be kept for 10 years.
During this period, the silencers, lasers and full-autos previously bought ( before 99 ) were tolerated.
Then came the new european-friendly law on the 12nd of December 2008 :
- Same criteria for the buy-permit from the police, plus now they make an investigation on you when you request your first permit, or they try to discourage you from buying a weapon ( ex : a guy asked for a permit, they told him 3 guns were enough when you are 23. He asked for a written statement about that, they didn't provide it because they new they will lose in front of law court. 3 weeks later he received his permit... )
- Same for the special-buy permit, except they don't give them easily now.
- About all the stuff never registered officially, like the weapons before 1999, silencers, lasers, bolt-action rifles which could be bought without permit before 2008, etc... You had a period of time to register those items with the police, they were supposed to provide you special authorizations for the forbidden stuff you already had. They also modified all the laws that permitted us to buy grenade launchers without permit...
- Buying from a private person is still possible, but now you need an official buy-permit from the police, you can't do the contracts anymore.
So here are in the great lines the laws concerning gun acquisition and ownership in Switzerland. If you are interested I can provide you the link to our federal gun law, but it's only available in German, French or Italian, you need to translate it by yourself if you want it :
http://www.admin.ch/ch/f/rs/514_54/index.html
Hope it will help. And if I made some mistakes, please fellow swiss friends, correct me !
We discussed about a thread about gun laws in the different countries represented by the members here, so I think we could start here. I will make a presentation about the laws in Switzerland, and after that you can add your local laws as well.
So first of all, a little History part about gun laws in Switzerland :
Switzerland is divided into 26 "states", it is a confederation, the those states joined it during the History. That's why it takes us some time when we need to make a decision which concerns everybody : there are states which speaks German, others French, Italian, and Romanche. More than the languages, the mentality is quite different from a place to an other.
So, before 1999, each state was making its own "cooking" : there was no federal law about weapons, each states was making its own. That means, depending the state you were living in, you could buy full-auto weapons, silencers, lasers, grenade launchers, etc... without problem. Same thing about semi-auto weapons, depending the state you needed a permit or not.
Then in 1999 it became a federal law with the following :
- To buy a weapon, you must be over 18 and had no criminal record. That was for semi-auto weapons. You asked the police dept for a buy-permit, and they made it for 50$ ( you could buy 3 weapons at the same time, at the same place with one permit ).
- For full-auto weapons, silencers and lasers you needed a "special buy-permit" which was obtained quite easily, depending on the police chief you were talking to. It was more easy at the beginning that in the end when the new law was coming, they became more restrictive on those special permits. Strange stuff, some weapons such as grenade launchers were defined as "a weapon with a single bore that must be reloaded one cartridge at a time" so it was free to buy without permit...
- You could also buy weapons from other civilians. You didn't need a permit from the police for that. The seller just needed to be sure you could legally own a weapon ( over 18, citizen, no criminal records, or foreigner with a live-in-the-country permit ). Then you just made a selling contract between you and the seller, and you could go home with your gun. This contract needed to be kept for 10 years.
During this period, the silencers, lasers and full-autos previously bought ( before 99 ) were tolerated.
Then came the new european-friendly law on the 12nd of December 2008 :
- Same criteria for the buy-permit from the police, plus now they make an investigation on you when you request your first permit, or they try to discourage you from buying a weapon ( ex : a guy asked for a permit, they told him 3 guns were enough when you are 23. He asked for a written statement about that, they didn't provide it because they new they will lose in front of law court. 3 weeks later he received his permit... )
- Same for the special-buy permit, except they don't give them easily now.
- About all the stuff never registered officially, like the weapons before 1999, silencers, lasers, bolt-action rifles which could be bought without permit before 2008, etc... You had a period of time to register those items with the police, they were supposed to provide you special authorizations for the forbidden stuff you already had. They also modified all the laws that permitted us to buy grenade launchers without permit...
- Buying from a private person is still possible, but now you need an official buy-permit from the police, you can't do the contracts anymore.
So here are in the great lines the laws concerning gun acquisition and ownership in Switzerland. If you are interested I can provide you the link to our federal gun law, but it's only available in German, French or Italian, you need to translate it by yourself if you want it :
http://www.admin.ch/ch/f/rs/514_54/index.html
Hope it will help. And if I made some mistakes, please fellow swiss friends, correct me !
